“‘You’re closed?’ ‘Yes, we’re closed.’ ‘Can I get a hot chocolate?’ ‘Of course, large right?’”
Encounters like this happen multiple times as I try to interview Angel Miranda, owner of The Mug Café in Sunset Park. Though the Café has been closed for at least a half hour, Miranda keeps serving as long as the lights are on and the doors unlocked.
At the age of twenty-five, The Mug Café, is Miranda’s first business. But not his only focus, “I’m self-employed, I guess,” he says laughing. “I trade stocks; myself. I’m trying to get my real estate license and I’m also getting my Series Six.”
While attending St. Francis college Miranda was mentored by a professor and learned how to trade stocks, “I opened an E-Trade account and started trading, I loved it, I was good at it.”
Miranda is from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and would switch to the N train at 59th St. after school spending time at the local café’s and around the area. So when Miranda’s mother came to him with the idea of opening a restaurant in Sunset Park he loved the location but not the food industry. “I was like, yeah but the food business is like a 90% margin that you’re going to close. Like the risk rate is 90%. I was told once that out of every ten restaurants within 5 years only one stays open. Nine close. Then after 10 years out of those five that lasted, one out of them remain opened. So your odds are stacked to fail, which is true. It’s such a cutthroat business.”
Miranda never wanted the full on café, he just wanted to sell coffee and pastries, “No need for cooking, no kitchen work, no hiring a porter, no grill. But you can’t do that here, you can’t pay your rent just selling coffee.”
It’s been three years since The Mug Café opened in October 2013 and business is going well. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner options at very reasonable prices. Hospital catering has brought in more business; with Mount Sinai Hospital becoming a client.
But with transitioning neighborhood his target market is forever changing, “First it was all Asian people, then Hispanic, now we have white people, it’s like who is my target? And it weird because I’m Mexican myself, but I’ll hear my fellow Mexicans in Spanish say, ‘It’s only for blancitos.’ Like no what are you talking about! I’m Mexican! I own it!”, he says shaking his head.
“That alone annoys me. When like automatically your instinct is that’s white people only, it’s like what do you mean that white people only, that doesn’t make sense at all to me.”
Miranda continually looks for other sources of income. He’s studying to get his real estate license, as well as the Series Six exam. He would like to get back into day trading as well but it’s currently not an option, “I tried and I lost. In trading, seconds matter and I just don’t have the time. I’m trying to get different channels of income where you’re growing wealth instead of just being rich. You gotta hustle in New York, there’s no such thing as sleep, not if you want to make it here”
The Mug Café is located on 5811 4th Avenue, Brooklyn 11220.
Source List
– Angel Miranda (347) 342 – 7288, [email protected]